Well this very nice time warp Allin turned up not far from me for sale, I had a day off, so thought why not?

The seller explained it was his father’s bike who had bought it new from Allin in the 50’s from Whitehorse Road. These pictures are from eBay because it was dark by the time I got home. I will try to get a clear shot of the frame number on the left hand drop out. Dammit, I have to go to work tomorrow and all I want to do it play!

Well that's going to keep you busy for awhile, though it looks like a worthwhile endeavor!

That beautiful bike deserves a restoration.

Just what I think as well. It needs to be time preserved, not broken apart.

Lol. I just had a 1951 CB New Allrounder frame turn up as well! Like buses, wait ages for one and two turn up at once…..

Looked at the serial number on the left rear drop out. Difficult to make out, as usual the nut has scored the numbers but I see 532. What do you see?

Allin SB

Allin SB

Allin 1958 code “AY”

Allin downtube

Allin fork detail

Allin toptube lug

Allin downtube lug

Allin seat lug

How lucky is that?


Great condition!

Lycett Swallow L15

Reynolds post

Almost forgot. Brampton B88 pedals as well, sigh…

Brampton B88 pedals

That’s flat out cool! Enjoy the process.
Let us see it when it’s all
cleaned up!

Lots to like there! First time I've seen where the fork crown lugs and the tube lugs are matched. Cool detail.

My FW Evans looked like that when I brought it home. Most of the paint and decals were gone, so I opted for a complete paint job and new decals. The Allin has better paint and decals, so I would try to gently remove the rust and preserve the paint and decals as much as possible.

H Lloyd Cycles has some of the decals for Allin. They have a similar seat tube decal for another model that they might be able to use as a template for yours. Allin decals at H Lloyd

I will try a weak Oxalic Acid bath first. I have an old car top-box that I skip dipped (dumpster diving I think you call it lol) for this very purpose. If that brings it up fantastic. It will be a while because it is in the que, but I am itching to do this one and might rearrange the line! H Lloyd are brilliant aren’t they!

Thank you, I will, can’t wait! Lol

They are very aesthetically delicate, didn’t notice them at first on the top tube.

Should be an intriguing project, chain might be stretched way beyond use but not bad a all

that is some HEAVY patina, but I think you are on the right track to start with a good soak in oxalic acid solution and see what it looks like afterward.
subscribing to this and eager to see the progress and results!

OMG, the pressure to get a move on lol!

-----

another loyvely textile on the oyrn o'er at Retro -

​​​​​​https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/...butler.490612/

---

simply marvy foynd!

you shall 'ave no end o' delight going through this treasure

---

take it that droyve train be one-speed freewheel, be that correct?

would expect 3/32" dentition and drive chain, be that the case?

headset appears Lytaloy No.1

are you able to make out any markings on bend sleeve?

at first glance thought perhaps bend might be a Marsh due to "flare" and shallow drop

possible Lycett may exhibit date marking on cantle

knurling pattern employed on adjustable bottom bracket cup lockring will indicate maker of assembly in case fittings be unmarked

​​​​​​

---

frame bits -

feature cut of lugs appears to be NERVEX 80 serie
me NERVEX catalogue dated 1958 doth illustrate this exact pattern not
pattern Nr. 82 shows same two points and same side view but has also a horizontal cutout just inboard of the end

the catalogue shows a lacuna betwixt pattern Nr. 79 and Nr. 82 so it is possible lugs may be pattern Nr. 80 or Nr. 81 and that these two patterns were discontinued prior to catalogue publication...

the nozzle cut of the frame's lugs is not illustrated in any materials have here
suspect this my indicate customized or proprietary

also checked all me Haden and Brampton Bros materials to make sure was not missing anything there...

dropouts appear to be NERVEX pattern Nr. 1008, possible Cyclo or other Bri producer offered similar design

pump pegs look to be the Cyclo design

cable casing stops appear to be NERVEX Ref. 871

arched seat stay bridge may be a NERVEX Ref. 600 serie piece
these were produced in a wide range of variations depending on length, flanged, unflanged, undrilled, drilled vertically, drilled horizonally, etc.


-----

I was very happy with the service from H Lloyd Cycles. It only took about 10 days to send the decals across the ocean for my FW Evans.

Ark at Ee!

Great bit of detective work. Thanks for putting me in the right direction.I think your right about the lugs. Well that puts it between 1958 and the sellers memory of 1950. The frame serial is very low, IF I am reading it right (I will have to look at the fork steerer tube to see if it is stamped there). I need to see another Allin dropout stamp to see the shape of the numbers.



Yes that is me on Retrobike. I find this forum and RB suit me the best and between them you can find what you need.

I will get some more time on Tuesday to look it over, I took those quick photos before heading to work, and I am working over the weekend.

“simply marvy foynd!” did make me chuckle. Have you ever heard the album “Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake” from The small faces? It features a guy called Stanley Unwin who was famous for his made up language called Unwineese.
Unwin claimed that the inspiration came from his mother, who once told him that on the way home she had "falolloped (fallen) over" and "grazed her kneeclabbers".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogdens%27_Nut_Gone_Flake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Unwin_(comedian)

Wasn’t it a great business idea!

Do excuse the fact storage, it feels like a good place to find it in one place at a later date.

FRAME NUMBERS (I see a Norman Kilgariff type spreadsheet coming)

https://www.classiclightweights.co.u...ycles-croydon/

Frame numbering was sequential starting with 500 (1946?) through to 2401, the last recorded number dated as 18/6/1981 in the surviving frame building notebook, this date may coincide with the retirement of Peter Cobb. Significant frame numbers and dates are as follows:
1422 July 1959
1448 1st January 1960.
1874 1966
1919 1967
2155 December 1972

Michael Oliver
I have what I was told is a 1952 Allin touring bicycle, frame number 948.

Bob Johnson
Lugless 1962/3 Allin ‘Club Model’ path/racer/track/TT frame Number 1705

John Foster
1964 Allin (Stan Butler Special) Belgique (Frame no. 1775)

George Hobbs
1807 dating from July 2 1965.
2104 was a February 28 1972


https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/....291528/page-2

895 1951
1448 1962
2385 1978
2405 1980

“And anyone reading this thread who spots that my dad's 'Green Best Bike is number 2405 when the last recorded number in the Allin book is 2401 when Peter Cobb retired. I remember this happening very clearly; dad heard that Peter was retiring in 1980/81 and travelled to see him and persuaded him to build my dad one last frame before he hung up his tools. This was after he had officially retired. I believe a couple of others also did the same, which would explain the 2405 number”.

Frame number 2564 seen on eBay 30.03.25 states 1980s frame. Has been suggested this might have been built by Ray Moore not Cliff Shrubb.

https://www.classiclightweights.co.u...ycles-croydon/
“The firm was to remain in the same hands until Stan sold the business to Ray Moore and John Hutt in 1980. From memory, the frame builder Cliff Shrubb operated from 81A Whitehouse Road at this period, building frames under his own name and for Geoffrey Butler (No relation!) and may have built for Allins after Peter Cobb’s retirement. The business was sold to Dave Rutter and Linda Allin in 1984 but they eventually closed the business and moved to Bognor Regis to open a new bike shop ‘Chain Reaction’. This must have been around 2000 as a friend of mine bought a touring bike from them in 1999”.

-----

lugs -

thank you for this illustration

feature cut Ref. 82 in the 1958 catalogue be similar to Ref. 83 in your illustration
difference being that side point on the 83 is a rounded "knob" or "bump" on the 82


---

serial -

hast thee as yet learned the meaning of the "87", or perhaps t'is an "83", on the shell?
the second digit appears to be an overstrike as though someone used the incorrect die first and then came back with a second kosh (or mebbe it be joust me auld occipital receptors!)


---

raggi/rayons/speichen -

checked the foyve-spoke/foyve pointed star symbol on the spoke heads at the identification guide chart
it is listed & shown but remains incognito
perchance another reader shalt recognise it...

went again to the directory just now and see that the listing has been removed. have never seen THAT occur previously.



Spoke Head Identification Chart

possible wheel rims may be NISI brand imported by EVIAN GB Limited

wondering if thar be any marque enthusiasts at the VCC with a knowledge o' Allin produce...

-----

I'm going to stick my neck out here and politely dissent from juvela 's ID of the lugset as being by Nervex. The Nervex lugsets typically have somewhat thicker shore lines on most bike frames I see that use them, and if they're thinned they show more taper; also, offhand I can't easily correlate any of them on the chart above with those on the Stan. Allin. R.O. Harrison was one builder who fashioned his own lugs out of (noticeably thinner) sheet metal, and varied the profiles quite a bit from build to build -- I will speculate that this bike is another example of that. The lug profiles on this bike are both simpler and less "rote" than Nervex examples we're all familiar with. Besides, if it were a Nervex lugset, then why not a Nervex bottom bracket too (which it doesn't appear to have)? And I’m fairly certain that, rather than Nervex 1008, the rear dropouts are "Stallard" pattern ones, which may have been manufactured by Cyclo, used commonly on British frames until the mid-1950s, when Simplex and Campagnolo became more widely used in Britain. Ref. the top figures here:

My guess is that this frame dates from the late 40s or early 50s. I could be wrong (I admit that I'm nowhere near being in juvela 's league bike-lore-wise), but I would ignore the MAFAC brakes, as a later addition. The Reynolds tubing decal on the seat tube, with the apostrophes on the rotated '531' overlapped by the "with" and "butted" (and no R-in-circle yet) was in use, at least according to the decal purveyor Lloyd, from 1938 to 1953 -- and you can be pretty sure that's native to the frame.


There's a later version with apostrophes, but the text on that one doesn't overlap the '531'. Just sayin'.